Method and apparatus for adding icon to interface of android system, and mobile terminal

ABSTRACT

A method for adding an icon to an interface of an Android system, where the Android system has N interfaces, includes: a. obtaining add command information; b. obtaining, according to the add command information, space information of an icon to be added; c. obtaining remaining space information of an M th  interface according to the add command information; d. judging whether the space information of the icon to be added is greater than the remaining space information of the M th  interface; if yes, executing step e; if no, executing step f; e. judging whether the M th  interface is a last interface to be judged; if yes, executing step g; if no, assigning M+1 to M and returning to step c; f. adding the icon to the interface; and g. establishing another interface, and adding the icon to the newly established interface; where M and N are natural numbers, and 1≤M≤N.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/852,322, filed on Apr. 17, 2020, which is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/154,154, filed on May 13, 2016, now U.S.Pat. No. 10,649,631. The U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/154,154 isa continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/662,463, filed onOct. 27, 2012, now U.S. Pat. No. 9,372,594. The U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/662,463 is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2011/073430, filed on Apr. 28, 2011, which claims priority toChinese Patent Application No. 201010166490.4, filed on Apr. 28, 2010,all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the field of communicationstechnologies, and in particular, to a method and an apparatus for addingan icon to an interface of an Android system, and a mobile terminal.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

At present, taking a device installed with an Android system as arepresentative, more and more handheld touch-screen terminal devicesprovide large-space Home interfaces for users, and therefore, the usersare allowed to place, according to their habits and under a preconditionthat there is space on a current screen, icons of frequently usedfavorite programs, widgets, controls, folders and so on to the Homeinterfaces of the devices, resembling shortcuts on a computer desktop,which greatly facilitates searching for a particular application programby the users when functions of handheld devices become increasinglypowerful nowadays.

During a process of implementing embodiments of the present invention,the inventor finds that the prior art has the following technicalproblems: If there is no space for placement on the current screen, anicon cannot be added, and a user is required to manually release spacefor placement, which is inconvenient for the user to operate; inaddition, in the prior art, when an icon is to be added to the Homeinterface, it must be ensured that there are enough space on the currentscreen, so that the icon can be added; if there is no enough space, aseries of operations of selecting an icon to be added by the userpreviously are invalid, and need to be performed again. As a result, acapability of intelligent interaction between a mobile phone using anAndroid system and a user is greatly reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing problems, an embodiment of the presentinvention provides a method for adding an icon to an interface of anAndroid system, where the Android system has N interfaces, and themethod includes:

a. obtaining add command information;

b. obtaining, according to the add command information, spaceinformation of an icon to be added;

c. obtaining remaining space information of an M^(th) interfaceaccording to the add command information;

d. judging whether the space information of the icon to be added isgreater than the remaining space information of the M^(th) interface; ifyes, executing step e; if no, executing step f;

e. judging whether the M^(th) interface is a last interface to bejudged; if yes, executing step g; if no, assigning M+1 to M andreturning to step c;

f. adding the icon to the interface, and the process ends; and

g. establishing another interface, adding the icon to the newlyestablished interface, and the process ends;

where, M and N are natural numbers, and 1≤M≤N.

Meanwhile, an embodiment of the present invention further provides anapparatus for adding an icon to an interface of an Android system, wherethe Android system has N interfaces, and the apparatus includes:

a first obtaining module, configured to obtain add command information;

a second obtaining module, configured to obtain, according to the addcommand information, space information of an icon to be added andremaining space information of an M^(th) interface;

a first judging module, configured to judge whether the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is greater than the remaining spaceinformation of the M^(th) interface;

a second judging module, configured to judge whether the M^(th)interface is a last interface to be judged; and

an adding module, configured to add the icon to remaining space of theM^(th) interface when the first judging module judges that the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is not greater than the remainingspace information of the M^(th) interface;

where, M and N are natural numbers, and 1≤M≤N.

In the embodiments of the present invention, whether to add the icon toa current interface is determined by judging whether the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is smaller than or equal toremaining space information of the current interface, thereby solving atechnical problem that a user is required to determine again and againwhether there is enough space before adding a icon in an Android deviceat present, and providing a friendly and human-centered operatingexperience for the user, so that a capability of intelligent interactionbetween a mobile phone using an Android system and a user is greatlyimproved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

To illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments of the presentinvention more clearly, accompanying drawings required for describingthe embodiments are briefly introduced in the following. Obviously, theaccompanying drawings in the following description are merely someembodiments of the present invention, and persons of ordinary skills inthe art may further obtain other drawings according to the accompanyingdrawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method according to Embodiment 1 of thepresent invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method according to Embodiment 2 of thepresent invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an apparatus according to Embodiment 3of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is another schematic diagram of the apparatus according toEmbodiment 3 of the present invention; and

FIG. 5 is another schematic diagram of the apparatus according toEmbodiment 3 of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention areclearly and completely described in the following with reference to theaccompanying drawings. Evidently, the embodiments to be described aremerely part of rather than all of the embodiments of the presentinvention. All other embodiments obtained by persons of ordinary skillin the art based on the embodiments of the present invention withoutcreative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the presentinvention.

Embodiment 1

Taking a mobile phone using an Android system with 2 interfaces as anexample, Embodiment 1 of the present invention provides a method foradding an icon to an interface of an Android system. Referring to FIG.1, the method specifically includes:

Step 101: Obtain add command information, where the add commandinformation is command information generated by a mobile terminal systemdue to a relevant operation of a user when the user needs to move anicon of a certain application program. For example, in a mobile terminal(such as a PC, PDA, and mobile phone) installed with an Android system,when the user presses an icon of a photographing application program,the mobile terminal can obtain the add command information, anddetermine that the user needs to perform a corresponding add operationon the icon.

Step 102: Obtain, according to the add command information, spaceinformation of an icon to be added and remaining space information of acurrent interface.

The icon mentioned in the embodiment of the present inventionspecifically refers to icons that are capable of representing visibilityor touchability of various application programs, such as a shortcut(shortcut), widget (Widget), folder, sticker, and bookmark. Afterobtaining the add command information, the mobile terminal obtains,according to the add command information, the space information of theicon to be added. The space information may be two-dimensional planeinformation, and may also be three-dimensional information. For example,the mobile terminal may obtain an icon with space information being 2×2square units (such as centimeters). Meanwhile, the mobile terminal mayobtain the remaining space information of the current interface. Becausethe icon to be added needs to be added to the current interface, themobile terminal needs to determine how much space is left on the currentinterface. For example, the mobile terminal determines the remainingspace information through a grid parameter established by the systemitself and information of space that has been occupied by applicationprogram icons.

Step 103: Judge whether the space information of the icon to be added isgreater than the remaining space information of the current interface;if yes, execute step 104; if no, execute step 105.

For example, the space information of the icon to be added is 2×2 squareunits, and the remaining space information is 3×2 square units; thissquare unit takes a horizontal axis—X axis and a longitudinal axis—Yaxis of a Cartesian coordinate system as a reference system. The mobileterminal judges that 2<3 and 2≤2, which indicates that the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is smaller than or equal to theremaining space information of the current interface. Therefore, themobile terminal adds the icon to the current interface. Certainly, thespace information mentioned in the example is plane information; in theembodiment of the present invention, the space information of the iconand the remaining space information may also be three-dimensional spaceinformation. For example, the space information of the icon to be addedis 2×2×2 cubic units, and the remaining space information is 3×2×4 cubicunits; the mobile terminal judges that 2<3, 2≤2, and 2<4, whichindicates that the space information of the icon to be added is smallerthan or equal to the remaining space information of the currentinterface. Therefore, the mobile terminal adds the icon to the currentinterface; otherwise, the mobile terminal searches for a next interface,and judges whether the next interface has enough remaining spaceinformation for adding the icon.

Step 104: Switch to a second interface, obtain remaining spaceinformation of the second interface, and execute step 106.

Step 105: Add the icon to the current interface, and the process ends.

Step 106: Judge whether the space information of the icon to be added isgreater than the remaining space information of the second interface; ifyes, execute step 107; if no, execute step 105.

Step 107: Establish a third interface, add the icon to the thirdinterface, and the process ends.

In Embodiment 1 of the present invention, whether to add the icon to thecurrent interface is determined by judging whether the space informationof the icon to be added is smaller than or equal to remaining spaceinformation of the current interface, thereby solving a technicalproblem that a user is required to determine again and again whetherthere is enough space before adding a icon in an Android device atpresent, greatly improving a capability of intelligent interactionbetween the mobile phone using the Android system and the user, andproviding a friendly and human-centered operating experience for theuser, so that the user has a good experience from visual and ease of useperspectives during an operation.

Embodiment 2

In Embodiment 1, the mobile terminal using the Android system with 2interfaces is taken as an example for illustration; Embodiment 2 of thepresent invention is described specifically below by using an Androidsystem with N interfaces. Referring to FIG. 2, Embodiment 2 of thepresent invention provides a method for adding an icon to an interfaceof an Android system, and the method specifically includes:

Step 201: Obtain add command information, where the add commandinformation is command information generated by a mobile terminal systemdue to a relevant operation of a user when the user needs to move anicon of a certain application program. For example, in a mobile terminal(such as a PC, PDA, and mobile phone) installed with an Android system,when the user presses an icon of a photographing application program,the mobile terminal can obtain the add command information, anddetermine that the user needs to perform a corresponding add operationon the icon.

Step 202: Obtain, according to the add command information, spaceinformation of an icon to be added.

Step 203: Obtain remaining space information of an M^(th) interfaceaccording to the add command information.

The icon mentioned in the embodiment of the present inventionspecifically refers to icons that are capable of representing visibilityor touchability of various application programs, such as a shortcut(shortcut), widget (Widget), folder, sticker, and bookmark. Afterobtaining the add command information, the mobile terminal obtains,according to the add command information, the space information of theicon to be added. The space information may be two-dimensional planeinformation, and may also be three-dimensional information. For example,the mobile terminal may obtain an icon with space information being 2×2square units (such as centimeters). Meanwhile, the mobile terminal mayobtain remaining space information of a current interface. Because theicon to be added needs to be added to the current interface, the mobileterminal needs to determine how much space is left on the currentinterface. For example, the mobile terminal determines the remainingspace information through a grid parameter established by the systemitself and information of space that has been occupied by applicationprogram icons.

Step 204: Judge whether the space information of the icon to be added isgreater than the remaining space information of the M^(th) interface; ifyes, execute step 205; if no, execute step 206.

Step 205: Judge whether the M^(th) interface is a last interface to bejudged; if yes, execute step 207; if no, assign M+1 to M, and return tostep 203.

Step 206: Add the icon to the interface, and the process ends.

Step 207: Establish another interface, add the icon to the newlyestablished interface, and the process ends.

M and N are natural numbers, and 1≤M≤N.

The following takes a mobile terminal using an Android system with 3interfaces as an example to describe the foregoing process in detail. Aterminal user performs an operation on a corresponding icon; the mobileterminal obtains add command information, and obtains, according to thecommand information, space information of the icon and remaining spaceinformation of a current interface (which may be called a firstinterface). Then, judge whether the space information of the icon isgreater than the remaining space information of the current firstinterface; if no, add the icon to the current first interface directly;if yes, judge whether the current first interface is a last interface tobe judged. An interface to be judged is obtained through a calculationaccording to interfaces of the system and an interface that has beenjudged; in the embodiment, because in the judging step, only the firstinterface is judged, and there are 2 interfaces which are not judgedyet, the current first interface is not the last interface to be judged.Therefore, judge a second interface, which is judging whether the spaceinformation of the icon is greater than remaining space information ofthe second interface; if no, add the icon to the second interfacedirectly; if yes, judge whether the second interface is the lastinterface to be judged. In the embodiment, because in the judging step,only the first interface and the second interface are judged, and thereis a third interface which is not judged yet, the second interface isnot the last interface to be judged. Therefore, judge the thirdinterface, which is judging whether the space information of the icon isgreater than remaining space information of the third interface; if no,add the icon to the third interface directly; if yes, judge whether thethird interface is the last interface to be judged. In the embodiment ofthe present invention, the third interface is the last interface to bejudged, which indicates that none of the three interfaces of the systemhas enough remaining space information for adding and placing the icon.In this case, the system establishes a new interface—which is called afourth interface. The fourth interface is newly established, and noapplication program icon is placed on the interface. Therefore,remaining space information of the interface is whole space of theinterface, and the icon may be added to the fourth interface. It may beunderstandable that, in the embodiment of the present invention, thenumber of interfaces possessed by the mobile terminal using the Androidsystem is not limited to 3, and may also be multiple, and an operationof adding an application program icon to an interface may also beperformed according to the foregoing method process.

Optionally, after step 206, the method further includes:

Step 2061: After the icon is added, sort all icons on the currentinterface according to use frequency of the icons. There may be icons ofmultiple application programs placed on an interface to which the iconis added. The user sorts and then places these icons and the newly addedicon, so that an icon of a most frequently used application program maybe placed at a most eye-catching or top position, which facilitates anoperation of the user.

In the embodiment of the present invention, whether to add the icon tothe current interface is determined by judging whether the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is smaller than or equal toremaining space information of the current interface, thereby solving atechnical problem that a user is required to determine again and againwhether there is enough space before adding a icon in an Android deviceat present, greatly improving a capability of intelligent interactionbetween a mobile phone using an Android system and the user, andproviding a friendly and human-centered operating experience for theuser, so that the user has a good experience from visual and ease of useperspectives during an operation.

Embodiment 3

Embodiment 3 of the present invention provides an apparatus for addingan icon to an interface of an Android system, where the Android systemhas N interfaces; referring to FIG. 3, the apparatus includes:

a first obtaining module 301, configured to obtain add commandinformation;

a second obtaining module 302, configured to obtain, according to theadd command information, space information of an icon to be added andremaining space information of an M^(th) interface;

a first judging module 303, configured to judge whether the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is greater than the remaining spaceinformation of the M^(th) interface;

a second judging module 304, configured to judge whether the M^(th)interface is a last interface to be judged; and

an adding module 305, configured to add the icon to remaining space ofthe M^(th) interface when the first judging module judges that the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is not greater than the remainingspace information of the M^(th) interface;

where, M and N are natural numbers, and 1≤M≤N.

Further, referring to FIG. 4, the apparatus may further include:

an establishing module 306, configured to establish another interfacewhen the second judging module judges that the M^(th) interface is thelast interface to be judged;

where, the adding module 305 is further configured to add the icon tothe newly established interface.

Further, referring to FIG. 5, the apparatus may further include:

a sorting module 307, configured to sort all icons on a currentinterface according to use frequency of the icons and an interface towhich the adding module 305 adds the icon. There may be icons ofmultiple application programs placed on the interface to which the iconis added. A user sorts and then places these icons and the newly addedicon, so that an icon of a most frequently used application program maybe placed at a most eye-catching or top position, which facilitates anoperation of the user.

In the embodiment of the present invention, whether to add the icon tothe current interface is determined by judging whether the spaceinformation of the icon to be added is smaller than or equal toremaining space information of the current interface, thereby solving atechnical problem that a user is required to determine again and againwhether there is enough space before adding a icon in an Android deviceat present, greatly improving a capability of intelligent interactionbetween a mobile phone using an Android system and the user, andproviding a friendly and human-centered operating experience for theuser, so that the user has a good experience from visual and ease of useperspectives during an operation.

Embodiment 4

Embodiment 4 of the present invention discloses a mobile terminal usingan Android system, where the mobile terminal includes a baseband chip, atouch screen, an antenna, and so on, and the mobile terminal may furtherinclude the apparatus for adding the icon to the interface in Embodiment3. Specifically, the mobile terminal may be a terminal device such as amobile phone using an Android system, a PDA (personal digitalassistant), a home information display (Home Information Display, HID),a tablet, or a mobile Internet device (Mobile Internet Device, MID).

Persons of ordinary skill in the art should understand that all or partof the processes of the method according to the foregoing embodimentsmay be implemented by a computer program instructing relevant hardware.The program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Whenthe program is run, the processes of the method according to theforegoing embodiments may be performed. The storage medium may be amagnetic disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory,ROM), a random access memory (Read-Only Memory, RAM), and so on.

The foregoing is merely exemplary embodiments of the present invention,but is not intended to limit the present invention. Any modification,equivalent replacement, or improvement made without departing from thespirit and principle of the present invention shall fall within theprotection scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of adding an icon in a mobile terminalthat has a first homescreen, the method being performed by the mobileterminal and comprising: detecting a first press gesture on an icon fora first widget to add the first widget to the first homescreen; inresponse to detecting the first press gesture, determining whether thefirst homescreen has available space for placing the first widget; andwhen it is determined that the first homescreen has available space forplacing the first widget, displaying the icon of the first widget on thefirst homescreen; when it is determined that the first homescreen doesnot have available space for placing the first widget, displaying theicon for the first widget on a second homescreen automatically created.2. The method according to claim 1, wherein application program iconsare displayed on the first homescreen before detecting the first pressgesture.
 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:determining remaining space of the first homescreen through a displaygrid parameter and space occupied by the application program icons onthe first homescreen.
 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein themobile terminal is installed with an Android operation system.
 5. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the mobile terminal further has athird homescreen next to the first homescreen before detecting the firstpress gesture.
 6. The method according to claim 5, further comprising:detecting a second press gesture on an icon for a second widget to addthe second widget to the first homescreen; in response to detecting thesecond press gesture, determining whether the first homescreen hasavailable space for placing the icon for the second widget; when it isdetermined that the first homescreen does not have available space forplacing the icon for the second widget, determining whether the thirdhomescreen has available space for placing the icon for the secondwidget; and when it is determined that the third homescreen hasavailable space for placing the icon for the second widget, displayingthe icon for the second widget on the third homescreen.
 7. The methodaccording to claim 6, further comprising: when it is determined that thefirst homescreen has available space for placing the icon for the secondwidget, displaying the icon for the second widget on the firsthomescreen.
 8. A mobile terminal comprising: a display screen; a memorystoring instructions; and a processor configured to execute theinstructions to cause the mobile terminal to perform operations of:detecting a first press gesture on an icon for a first widget to add thefirst widget to the first homescreen; in response to detecting the firstpress gesture, determining whether the first homescreen has availablespace for placing the first widget; and when it is determined that thefirst homescreen has available space for placing the first widget,displaying the icon of the first widget on the first homescreen; when itis determined that the first homescreen does not have available spacefor placing the first widget, displaying the icon for the first widgeton a second homescreen automatically created.
 9. The mobile terminalaccording to claim 8, wherein application program icons are displayed onthe first homescreen before detecting the first press gesture.
 10. Themobile terminal according to claim 9, wherein determining remainingspace of the first homescreen through a display grid parameter and spaceoccupied by the application program icons on the first homescreen. 11.The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein the mobile terminal isinstalled with an Android operation system.
 12. The mobile terminalaccording to claim 8, wherein the mobile terminal further has a thirdhomescreen next to the first homescreen before detecting the first pressgesture.
 13. The mobile terminal according to claim 8, wherein theinstructions further comprise: detecting a second press gesture on anicon for a second widget to add the second widget to the firsthomescreen; in response to detecting the second press gesture,determining whether the first homescreen has available space for placingthe icon for the second widget; when it is determined that the firsthomescreen does not have available space for placing the icon for thesecond widget, determining whether the third homescreen has availablespace for placing the icon for the second widget; and when it isdetermined that the third homescreen has available space for placing theicon for the second widget, displaying the icon for the second widget onthe third homescreen.
 14. The mobile terminal according to claim 13,wherein the instructions further comprise: when it is determined thatthe first homescreen has available space for placing the icon for thesecond widget, displaying the icon for the second widget on the firsthomescreen.
 15. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium havinga program recorded thereon that, when executed by a processor, causes amobile terminal to add an icon in a mobile terminal that has a firsthomescreen, by performing the steps of: detecting a first press gestureon an icon for a first widget to add the first widget to the firsthomescreen; in response to detecting the first press gesture,determining whether the first homescreen has available space for placingthe first widget; and when it is determined that the first homescreenhas available space for placing the first widget, displaying the icon ofthe first widget on the first homescreen; when it is determined that thefirst homescreen does not have available space for placing the firstwidget, displaying the icon for the first widget on a second homescreenautomatically created.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium according to claim 15, wherein application program icons aredisplayed on the first homescreen before detecting the first pressgesture.
 17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumaccording to claim 15, wherein determining remaining space of the firsthomescreen through a display grid parameter and space occupied by theapplication program icons on the first homescreen.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim 15,the mobile terminal is installed with an Android operation system. 19.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium according to claim15, wherein: detecting a second press gesture on an icon for a secondwidget to add the second widget to the first homescreen; wherein themobile terminal further has a third homescreen next to the firsthomescreen; and in response to detecting the second press gesture,determining whether the first homescreen has available space for placingthe icon for the second widget; when it is determined that the firsthomescreen does not have available space for placing the icon for thesecond widget, determining whether the third homescreen has availablespace for placing the icon for the second widget; and when it isdetermined that the third homescreen has available space for placing theicon for the second widget, displaying the icon for the second widget onthe third homescreen.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium according to claim 19, wherein: when it is determined that thefirst homescreen has available space for placing the icon for the secondwidget, displaying the icon for the second widget on the firsthomescreen.